Can Marco Rubio save the GOP on immigration?

Barely an hour after Mitt Romney conceded the presidential election Wednesday morning, Marco Rubio laid down his marker for 2016: No, he wouldn’t be the candidate of the tired old white guy.

“The conservative movement should have particular appeal to people in minority and immigrant communities who are trying to make it,” the GOP Florida senator posted on his Facebook page at 2:16 a.m. “And Republicans need to work harder than ever to communicate our beliefs to them.”

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PHOTOS: 20 recent quotes on immigration reform

This is indisputably Rubio’s moment, and how the 41-year-old senator and the most prominent Latino in national politics today carries his party’s demographic burden will define not only his own future — but the future of the Republican Party. He was the biggest Republican winner Tuesday, Republicans will tell you, as it became painfully clear that Romney would carry only 27 percent of the nation’s fastest-growing demographic.

Now, as fingers are pointed and blame is assigned, all eyes are on Rubio to help lead his party out of the political abyss with Hispanic voters. As Rubio positions himself for a 2016 run, his advisers are adamant that he not become merely the Latino candidate but a conservative leader with a compelling voice who can articulate to Hispanics that the Republican Party’s values are their values — family, social conservatism, free-market entrepreneurialism.

“He is without question a world-class political talent with the ability to lead the party into the 21st century … a party that has become synonymous with intolerance and loons to too many swing voters,” said Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who ran Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.

“You know the media and the party — everyone is looking at this lifeboat with Marco written on the side of it and everyone wants to jump in,” said GOP political strategist Alex Castellanos. “We better be careful or we’re gonna sink it. We’re going to take one of our greatest assets and pigeonhole and typecast him. We need to move the conversation to the next generation, and he’s one of the people who understand that we have to be the party of hope.”

Rubio and his advisers are well aware of the risks: He must thread a needle as he tries to portray an open, tolerant party while not incensing the ultraconservative base who want tall fences, closed borders and nothing that looks like amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Rubio is already testing the national waters — he’s heading to an Iowa fundraiser next week — so he’s well aware of the complexity of moving the party to the left on immigration while appealing to the conservatives who rule the Republican primary process.

Rubio seems likely to approach potential immigration talks from a biographical standpoint. The son of working-class, Cuban-born parents, the bilingual senator often speaks of how his mom and dad toiled for decades as a hotel maid and bartender after moving to America, longing for a better future for their children.

“He is well-positioned to be a leader on this issue — but it will take courage and he can’t do it alone,” said Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.

“This is a very, very dangerous area for Rubio if he has national aspirations,” said Roy Beck, head of the anti-immigration group Numbers USA. “You’ve had Republicans trying to do this in the past that really lost their status in the party once they did it.”

Rubio also has a potential problem inside the Senate. Two of the top Senate Republicans — Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John Cornyn of Texas — are up for reelection in 2014 and have to be worried about a tea party primary challenge if they fire up the base on immigration.

We Owe these illegals nothing but contempt and a one way ticket to the border. They owe us. They all owe us but all these Illegals offer is disrespect and insults...and they have the gall to demand we forget the insult and pay them for the privilege of being robbed..

What can Rubio do? How about uphold the Law, and put America and Americans first. Unless he requires the illegals to following the law and holds those who did not accountable, he can say nothing worth hearing. We as a nation are broke and cannot afford unchecked immigration.

Secure the border...until that is done, nothing else should be. It should have been done long ago.

We Owe these illegals nothing but contempt and a one way ticket to the border. They owe us. They all owe us but all these Illegals offer is disrespect and insults...and they have the gall to demand we forget the insult and pay them for the privilege of being robbed..

What can Rubio do? How about uphold the Law, and put America and Americans first. Unless he requires the illegals to following the law and holds those who did not accountable, he can say nothing worth hearing. We as a nation are broke and cannot afford unchecked immigration.

Secure the border...until that is done, nothing else should be. It should have been done long ago.

Clearly a DESPERATE article to prop up this failed Hispanic recruiter. After the GOP got their clocks cleaned and kicked to the curb 2 days ago.

First off. He ALREADY PITCHED HIS CONSERVATIVE ECONOMIC IDIOLOGY IN ALL THE SWING STATES for ROMNEY !!!

How did that work out for ya???

FEWER Hispanic votes than McCain got!!! That's how.

Maybe it's because Hispanics don't see how the Republican party of bitter old white racists. Who's every policy is to GUT THE POOR and GUT THE MIDDLE CLASS and LOWER WORKERS WAGES by ATTACKING UNIONS and doing all this, so they can GIVE OUR $$$$$ TO THE LIKES OF TRUMP!!!!!

While eliminating the Dept of Education. Early childhood immunizations and taking all the tax deductions so they can givecasino owners tax cuts and get campaign $$$$ !

Maybe that's why they spit in Rubios face after he pitched them in all these states.

Rubio doesn’t “have a way” to broaden the GOP’s demographic appeal. The instinct to turn to Rubio primarily because of his ethnicity reeks of desperation, which is hardly appealing, and it announces to rank-and-file voters that party and movement leaders want to resume fruitless efforts to pander to groups that are supposedly “natural” Republicans. Because his foreign policy preferences represent some of the worst that the modern GOP has to offer, he would be hard-pressed to broaden the Republican coalition. Republicans need to become and be perceived as capable of governing well, and only then can its coalition grow. There are not many people looking for a new Joe Lieberman to lead them into Syria, or wherever the next conflict might happen to be, and there will be many conservatives who won’t want to support a protege of Jeb Bush. It’s not difficult to imagine how rallying behind Rubio could make things worse for the GOP among its reliable supporters and backfire among those outside the party that he is supposed to be able to attract.

The big flaw in GOP Rubio solution is something to be fixed by nominating the right sort of person, as if a party’s demographic appeal depended mainly on the personal history of its presidential candidates or other political leaders. If a party has little or nothing relevant to say to a certain constituency or group, the people at the top of the party won’t make any difference. When the leaders of a party hold many policy views that alienate a constituency, modifying one isn’t a remedy.

Rubio doesn’t “have a way” to broaden the GOP’s demographic appeal. The instinct to turn to Rubio primarily because of his ethnicity reeks of desperation, which is hardly appealing, and it announces to rank-and-file voters that party and movement leaders want to resume fruitless efforts to pander to groups that are supposedly “natural” Republicans. Because his foreign policy preferences represent some of the worst that the modern GOP has to offer, he would be hard-pressed to broaden the Republican coalition. Republicans need to become and be perceived as capable of governing well, and only then can its coalition grow. There are not many people looking for a new Joe Lieberman to lead them into Syria, or wherever the next conflict might happen to be, and there will be many conservatives who won’t want to support a protege of Jeb Bush. It’s not difficult to imagine how rallying behind Rubio could make things worse for the GOP among its reliable supporters and backfire among those outside the party that he is supposed to be able to attract.

The big flaw in GOP Rubio solution is something to be fixed by nominating the right sort of person, as if a party’s demographic appeal depended mainly on the personal history of its presidential candidates or other political leaders. If a party has little or nothing relevant to say to a certain constituency or group, the people at the top of the party won’t make any difference. When the leaders of a party hold many policy views that alienate a constituency, modifying one isn’t a remedy.

Rubio doesn't recognize illegal immigrants as de facto Americans, part of the American family. Rubio is a good-looking guy that represents the younger generation. He is glib in two senses: one, he can be artfully persuasive in speech and, two, his talk is marked by lack of intellectual depth. Rubio needs to do what Hillary did and Palin didn't -- study the issues hard and long. Have you heard him in interviews? His knowledge of the Ryan budget, which he foolishly voted for, is astonishingly minimal and superficial. I assume if he truly studies hard that over time his views will become more Democratic and less the radicalized Republicanism currently in vogue.

The next generation's savior of the Republican Party will take the party on a new course that abandons the tried-and-failed trickle-down, supply-side economics (that succeeds only in making the rich richer and further expanding income inequality in America). Such a Republican political savior will drop the Republican bigotry in attitude, words and legislative deeds. Rubio is a sexist who wants the federal government controlling women's bodies in most intimate ways; that sexism will have to be jettisoned.. He's a shill for corporate America and the rich, just like his fellow Republicans. Until Rubio develops more intellectual substance and fresh positions and directions, he will remain a glib younger guy mouthing the same old radical Republican nonsense. Until Rubio offers a new Republican vision and way forward, he'll remain a Hispanic (Cuban) token, much as Michael Steele was for the party.

Rubio has serious character issues: funny money from banks and house profits; using politics and government as a cash cow, as in family political consultancy business; charging Republican Party for personal expenses -- he's paid back some $9,000 so far; lying in his autobiography, et cetera.

I hope he grows in character an intellect, for Republicans need younger blood and fresh ideas.

No kidding. Latinos turned out at the polls and voted for President Obama at a historic rate. At least one election eve report by the Latino Decisions blog indicates that Obama won 75% of that voting bloc, while Republican challenger Mitt Romney captured a mere 23%. (Latinos account for 10% of the electorate).

GOP leaders can't be surprised by those results. How could they be when they were repeatedly warned by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and others that taking a hard line on immigration was a dangerous tactic. Sure, that strategy might win Romney support among some conservatives, but it also risked alienating Latinos in key battleground states such as Florida. Nor should they be shocked by Latinos' rejection of their plan. After all, this isn't the first time Latinos have seen the GOP embrace such rhetoric. Republicans took the same approach in California in 1994. Led by Gov. Pete Wilson, the GOP threw its support behind Proposition 187, the ballot measure that sought to bar undocumented immigrants from receiving state social services and educational benefits. That decision cost the party dearly. It drove Latinos out of the party and has kept them away for nearly two decades.

That's why it seems disingenuous for Republican strategists to now struggle to confront a demographic crisis. The GOP took a calculated risk and it failed to pay off Tuesday night.

So, how to fix their demographic problem? Here's a suggestion: Try not to ignore or offend the voters you hope to court.

Somebody should let Rubio know, that only 28% of Hipanics said they were pro-life in swing state exit polls.

That and the fact that the Bush/Chaney housing bust, sucked out 58% of all the wealth in the Hispanic community.

After the GOP ecomic idiology destroyed the economy under Bush/Chaney. For the first time in the history of America, did the families in third world countries, have to send money INTO the USA for their family members here without work.

So go ahead with that "Natural fit" conservative crap. Because we saw how well these dillusions workd out for you in 2008 and 2012.

PS- Rush isn't about to cave to kissing up to illegals for Rubios presidential fantasies.

Mark Levin wants to deport the Hispanics and IMPORT good Republicans from EASTERN BLOCK Soviet countries. So they DON'T have to kiss up to illegals to get votes.

After threatening to abandon the GOP earlier this week because of the anti-immigrant sentiments expressed by Tea Party members and this bunch of presidential candidates, a Texas Republican leader has left his party.

Lauro Garza, who led the nation’s largest conservative Latino group, Somos Republicans, blamed politicians, especially Herman Cain, of fear-mongering over the immigration issue and likened himself to Ronald Reagan, who left the Democratic Party when he felt like it betrayed him.

Garza, of Katy, posted the news along with a picture of his cut-up Republican of Texas card on the Somo Republicans site.

“The party has left us behind. Our credibility among Latinos is strained because we identify with the Republican Party,” said Garza, of Katy, in a Public News Service story. “Saying it’s strained is putting it mildly.”

He described the current state of the party as “radical and unreasonable” and called Herman Cain a “hateful bigot” for his electrified border fence idea.

From the story:

Garza remains state leader of Somos Republicans, and says the future direction of the organization still is being worked out. While he does not excuse illegal immigration or advocate open borders with Mexico, he says politicians are guilty of exploiting ungrounded fears when they suggest comprehensive immigration reform must wait until the border is safe and sealed. On the contrary, Garza insists, reform is essential for taking the load off the border.

Garza has criticized his now-former party in recent months. He took Gov. Rick Perry to task for moving away from a relatively immigration-friendly agenda. But Garza says this week’s reaction to comments from a leading GOP presidential candidate was the last straw. Herman Cain had suggested building a lethal electric border fence. Although he later insisted he was joking, Cain continued to stand by his general concept.

Immigrant rights activists voiced anger Wednesday after a judge upheld Arizona's right to enforce a so-called "show me your papers" law which critics say will lead to racial profiling of Hispanics.

U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled in favor of the most contested part of a controversial 2010 law, requiring that officers question the immigration status of suspects stopped for other suspected crimes.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June declared most of that law unconstitutional, but allowed state police officers in Arizona, which borders Mexico, to ask people suspected of being illegal immigrants to show identification papers.

Rights groups sought to challenge that in the U.S. District Court, but the judge said they had "not shown that they are likely to succeed on their... challenges to" the Supreme Court opinion.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it would continue to fight the ruling, both in court and by highlighting cases it says abuse the law and amount to racial profiling.

"The ACLU of Arizona will act on the court's message and document racial profiling abuses throughout the state as the first step to guaranteeing equal treatment under the law," said the group's executive director Alessandra Soler.

"Latino members of our community should not be subjected to unlawful stops based on their race or perceived immigration status," Soler said. "Once this 'show me your papers' provision goes into effect, racial profiling will become rampant statewide... and we intend to ramp up our reporting and litigation efforts to seek justice on behalf of the victims of police abuse."

Perhaps State of Arizona & Arizona GOP Party & GOP Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is a good reason Lations despise the GOP Party.

Immigrant rights activists voiced anger Wednesday after a judge upheld Arizona's right to enforce a so-called "show me your papers" law which critics say will lead to racial profiling of Hispanics.

As ridiculous as the Arizona law is, get this. I live about 60 miles north of the border in southern California. The BORDER PATROL have a station along the freeway at the edge of my town. They arbitrarily stop cars and ask for documents. What basis do you think they use to "selectively stop" cars and ask for documents? And remember, this is the FEDERAL AGENCY that is doing this every day in my back yard...............60 miles from the border!